I heard bands like, you know, very hard drum sounds, but i like to be like them.

Any suggestion for being a better drummer everyday. I'm not a poser or something, but i like to try.sorry for my english...

Well I've only been playing 6 years which is nothing compared to some of the people on this forum but I would suggest always trying to get out of your comfort zone and play tracks which challenge you instead of a song you can pick-up on the 2nd or 3rd listen. That and play with a metronome especially if you aim on playing in a band of some sort.

just some advice- your better off not messin with expensive stuff you dont need like metronomes cuz get ready for symbal cracks, busted sticks, new heads an everyting in between. save that money get a double kick a deep bronze snare paiste sabian symbals-stuff you can use that lasts. have played in 7 bands. start at your own pace and go up the movement becomes subconcious. yu try random slayer at daves pace it aint gonna get learned

On the subject of playing along to songs, is this a pretty much accepted way of practise? I've done nothing but play along with bands and my chops have improved a crazy amount just the last few weeks. Are lessons really that necessary?

On the subject of playing along to songs, is this a pretty much accepted way of practise? I've done nothing but play along with bands and my chops have improved a crazy amount just the last few weeks. Are lessons really that necessary?

Are a must. Most of begginers start to bash the kit just like they think it's ok, but there's a lot of technique and psychical posture/effort involved that's completely necessary to fix at first steps; there are tons of stuff that starters don't pay attention, like the close/open hi-hat stuff, snare rolls, ghost notes, etc.

Also, musical notation is something that any guy needs to know and to work with a metronome, especially at SLOW speed. To play really slow is much harder than most people think and it's a good way to measure how solid is your tempo. For more extreme metal drumming, you still need to be flawless in slow and mid paced stuff, so you can build speed and don't mess up everything - see the WTC debut for instance, where the drummer clearly can't keep some - if any - rythms and tempos consistently.

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potug wrote:

KoRn plays nu metal, and sometimes can be better than Venom, and also, their lyrics are awesome.

What are some exercises that can be performed daily to build muscle endurance and speed?

I have been doing RRRR LLLL RRRR LLLL... for a about a half hour every second day for a while, but I am not sure if it would be a good idea to do it everyday, which is what I would prefer to do. I am a little worried that it may be possible to overwork the muscles. Building endurance is my main interest.

If you don't feel tired and your muscles don't hurt then there's nothing wrong with practising a bit more often, if it's bad your body will make sure to let you know.For the record, remember than speed and endurance isn't everything, be sure to have a metronome always while you do this, fast but messy is never good.

Right now I'm working on Heel toe technique and getting foot and wrist/finger strength up. I've kind of 'just started' drumming only recently, but I feel in a month I could drum for a band and be good. I feel too many drummers focus on blast beats and endurance rather then fills, which I find to be way more interesting.

Also, am I the only one who feels blast beats are slow? A lot of drummers in my area feel the same as well. I am not trying to learn blast beats yet, but I feel I never want to because no one in my area would be able to write good music to blast beats.

went to see Anthrax Testament and Death Angel on November 11th and when i was there i caught Charlie Benante's drumstick which is his Vic Firth signature stick after looking at it for a while i started thinking about buying a pair of his signature sticks and im not going to use the he threw to me to see if its any good its Charlie Benante from anthrax were talking about so i was wondering if anyone else has used them and if they are any good

The drums themselves are a really crappy budget company called Sunlite. They're made in the same factory as CB drums are. The tom holders are the Pearl kind where a huge metal tube goes into the drum itself. Makes finding a comfortable setup a pain in the ass. I've tried everything I can to make the kit better, yet I hope that this year I can finally get a new kit.

(It can be anything from the slower black metal to old school dm, grind and whatever you may think of, as long it has decent one foot blasting in it for the most part to make for a good practice, good sound quality would be nice as well, to hear the bass drum)

I've been drumming for about 4 years and consider myself fairly proficient. However, when I'm playing the bass drum I keep my heel pretty much planted on the ground and kind of move my foot up and down from the ankle to play the bass. But whenever I see footage of any drummers playing, it looks like they lift up their whole foot to play. Am I the only one who doesn't do this and is there any real advantage to doing any particular way?

no actually i dont do that with my double kickers it makes a ton of since without lifting your feet you get so much faster...however i do kick with my heel off the pedal

I've been drumming for about 4 years and consider myself fairly proficient. However, when I'm playing the bass drum I keep my heel pretty much planted on the ground and kind of move my foot up and down from the ankle to play the bass. But whenever I see footage of any drummers playing, it looks like they lift up their whole foot to play. Am I the only one who doesn't do this and is there any real advantage to doing any particular way?

no actually i dont do that with my double kickers it makes a ton of since without lifting your feet you get so much faster...however i do kick with my heel off the pedal

Same here. I used to lift my foot higher, because back in the day I had the old Iron Cobras and although they were fast, they weren't very powerful when they hit the bass drum, so I would compensate by hitting the pedal harder.

After going through an Eliminator, and nowadays with an Axis AL2 set up to hit hard, I kind of weaned that out.

With the foot lower to the pedal you have more movement efficiency, and also conserve more energy and have more stamina, so you are doing the right thing.

Maybe some drummers that we all haven't heard of...? Or techniques would help also. And yes, Nicholas is amazing.

Dennis the Menace. He's just my favorite. I mean, if you know Macabre, you know Dennis the Menace, so it's not like I'm the only guy who's heard of him, but seriously, MOST UNDERRATED DRUMMER IN METAL. Well, that's my opinion.

For reference, here's two of his best songs, "Hitchhiker", and "The Wustenfeld Man Eater"

What are some exercises that can be performed daily to build muscle endurance and speed?

I have been doing RRRR LLLL RRRR LLLL... for a about a half hour every second day for a while, but I am not sure if it would be a good idea to do it everyday, which is what I would prefer to do. I am a little worried that it may be possible to overwork the muscles. Building endurance is my main interest.

I wouldn't be so stressed out about it. I mean if you do it everyday and you have a sharp pain than by all means stop but if it isn't hurting it should be fine. Also, rudiments are the key to success in any type of drumming. Build those up and you can do anything.

Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 3:28 pmPosts: 302Location: United States of America

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 9:45 am

I need some advice on midi instruments, more specifically drums. I've never owned or used a midi instrument so I really know nothing about them. I assume you have to record it with something with a midi record function like Reaper or Tabledit. In this case do the sounds from the kit somehow get onto the computer so it can be played as it would sound on the drum? A much simpler way I'd like to do it is to plug the thing in and just record the audio exactly as it comes out with windows movie maker, is this possible?

In this case, what the computer'll be doing will be writing the beats into MIDI form, to which it will then give sounds taken from a sampler or synthesizer; it's good because if you happened to miss a single beat or something, you can just edit it without having to rerecord everything, and you can also play around with the sounds you can assign to every part of the drum.

You can record the sound by itselft, but that's kind of senseless when you have the other option which is way more versatile.

Joined: Wed May 27, 2009 3:28 pmPosts: 302Location: United States of America

Posted: Mon Apr 30, 2012 2:33 pm

Alright cool because I looked it up and the standard sounds with the device I was going to get are shitty. I do know that you can apply vsti's to midi files...got any good recommendations for a drum one?

(It can be anything from the slower black metal to old school dm, grind and whatever you may think of, as long it has decent one foot blasting in it for the most part to make for a good practice, good sound quality would be nice as well, to hear the bass drum)

I've only recently started following the forums, but I am a single kick drummer and have grown fond of Mutilation Rites' Justin Ennis (single kick blaster)

What are some exercises that can be performed daily to build muscle endurance and speed?

I have been doing RRRR LLLL RRRR LLLL... for a about a half hour every second day for a while, but I am not sure if it would be a good idea to do it everyday, which is what I would prefer to do. I am a little worried that it may be possible to overwork the muscles. Building endurance is my main interest.

"RRRR LLLL ..." with your feet, or hands? If you can, pick up Jojo Mayer's DVD "Secret Weapons for the Modern Drummer" - I learned A LOT from watching that one (and I had been playing quite some years before I saw that one). It has nothing on foot techniques, but your hands speed WILL improve drastically, I can assure you. If it was about feet, then.. pick up an old paradiddle book, and do those paradiddles with your feet

I want to offer some words of wisdom, because I've recently discovered that many drummers (myself included, although I have broken these barriers down and have been tearing it up ever since) have lost faith in their practicing. Or, at least, the method of practicing and material being practiced.

Use a metronome, but play without one, as well. You need to learn to count in your head so that it becomes second nature, and be able to tell when you are not timely with each hit, even if the hit is just barely off. A metronome helps you gain unconscious timing, which is essentially the goal, but being conscious of your timing is equally important. It also allows you to focus more easily in time.

Be fucking patient. I've been playing for 5 years, and I wasn't able to get through a song that had blasts at 210 bpm for SHIT until now. Thanks to a lot of time practicing (very important), and some deadly exercises, I can do songs at 240 bpm. I still need work to clean everything up, and it's hard to get through multiple songs of 220 plus, but it's a step. Derek Roddy said something I think is pretty insightful that I'd like to share (this is not a direct quote): Every drummer can blast at 300 bpm. Speed is NOT what you're really looking for, it's endurance. In other words, practice speed. Push yourself on how fast you can go, but keep it reasonable. I can blast at 310 bpm, but only for about four strikes, and they aren't that loud. Everyone can go fast, they just can't do it for long.

The key to that paragraph above is to practice in a way that BURNS your arms. Note: cramping is not burning. Your forearms should feel hot, and it should feel like kind of a slow, agitating burn. It should NOT feel like a twinge of pain or any kind of extreme discomfort, that is when you stop and practice paradiddles, double strokes, etc.

That brings me to the next point: don't just practice blasts and metal fills. Rudiments, while mundane, tedious, and infuriating at times, help you push your playing big time. It's like educating your muscles. Think of it this way: Anyone can play single strokes. But after you sit down and practice limb independence with the samba, suddenly single strokes aren't the hardest thing to play. Practice double strokes, all kinds of paradiddles, odd time signatures, and learn other bands' songs. Start with something challenging, but not impossible. Old school death metal and black metal are good to start building up your timing and comfort with blasts/double bass. But try rock, reggae, fuck, I play along to rap beats I like and add weird fills every now and then.

Start learning how to memorize. This is crucial, you need working memory to be in a band. Start now, even if the songs are simple.

Having a hard time with double bass? Are your hands faster and more intricate then your feet? Wonder why? Because you don't do with your feet what you do with your hands. Do the math, I don't need to say anything else.

Wait... I'm sorry, does this seem like everything you've ever heard? Do you feel like you've wasted your time reading this? Guess what: you have. If you knew all of these things, you just pissed away a fraction of your life. Get mad, you'll need to sublimate the interweb rage I have just instilled in you. If you knew all of these things, and you're still looking for tips and tricks, you are lost. You need to do everything I mentioned to death. You can accumulate all the knowledge you want, but you'll never get where you want to be if you don't implement it. Practice these things listed above, and practice them often. Until about a year ago, I hadn't really been practicing this stuff the way I should have been. Once I started, I was killing it on the kit. I'm still learning, and I always will be, but don't just learn about these practice methods and do them half-heartedly. I can promise you, you will feel like your brain is being eaten by a thousand little necro-termites. You will feel like you fucking suck, and because you're practicing something difficult and new to you, you will fucking suck. In the beginning. But that's what practice is for.

As a final reminder, be patient and merciful with yourself. If you can't get down some crazy odd time signature and you feel too overwhelmed, practice one that's on your level, or just above it. Work yourself up.

I've always been a guitarist, but over the past year I've had to share some drum duties in my old band that was resurrected. I'm thinking about maybe getting lessons eventually to learn stuff other than caveman speed, punk, and thrash techniques.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypPyu7CiMfgGive me some feedback on this song. In particular, I'm curious as to how to improve my stamina during Slayer tempo beats (seen at 1:40). After a couple of songs live my right arm is shot during fast beats. Is this simply a practice/muscle building issue?